


I Promise

by Jaliee_Holmes



Category: Supernatural
Genre: #BigBangChallenge, #FanfctionAmino, Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gabriel/Castiel - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, Sibling Incest, The ship with no name, still suck at tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 14:44:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15687519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaliee_Holmes/pseuds/Jaliee_Holmes
Summary: Gabriel and Castiel Novak have lived with each other for years, but after a phone call three months back, they have come to realize that this was never going to last. Trying hard to hold all the pieces together, Castiel struggled to accept the fact that Gabriel will have to leave. But no matter what he tells himself, he's stuck on the small promise Gabriel made him when he was like ten. One promise that Gabriel has always withheld. This is the story of two people who love each other learning that love comes in all forms and never dies. That a little spark is always left behind, no matter how bad things get.





	I Promise

**Author's Note:**

> So this is probably the hardest to find ship in this fandom. And let me just say this. I love it. This year I took part in the Fanfiction Amino's Bing Bang Challenge. After writing, I teamed up with two INCREDIBLE artists to add some art to this the first picture's credit goes to Laura Kresevic. She did a wonderful job! The second picture's credit goes to castielnotthepizzaman. Once again, an amazing work of art she created to capture the scene. As for me... I wrote the story. I don't draw. I am VERY artistically challenged. I'm not even that great of a writer. But once more! Shout-outs to Laura Kresevic and castielnotthepizzaman for their wonderful works of art. Have a cookie! (::)

_Sometimes we leave those who are most important to us._

_Sometimes we lose those who made our life worthwhile._

_Sometimes we are forced to break a promise._

_The single most important thing to remember is that you may leave and loose and break, but no matter what, you have made an impact on that person's life._

_As long as that small part was worthwhile, you no longer need to worry._

_Because every person you leave, every person you lose, every promise you break._

_You did your best._

_You helped that person all you could._

_Then when someone leaves you._

_You'll know you helped that person find their future while they were with you._

_And when you leave someone._

_You'll know you left them then in a better place than where you found them._

_As for the promises you'll break._

_You'll know you tried your hardest to withhold them._

_So you will leave._

_You will lose._

_But no matter what you do, always remember to say this._

_I promise..._

* * *

 

Castiel Novak walked in his front door that night, the first word out his mouth was his normal greeting. It was more or less him gaping at his older brother who had laid the entire pantry out on the couch. At least that's what it seemed like. Gabriel placed down another item before grinning up at him.

"Cassie! You're home! What do you think?" he pushed himself off the floor.

"I think that you've gone mental and I need to get you help. What the hell happened here?"

Gabriel's smile dropped. "I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe I was wrong."

Gabriel started to go and pick up everything, but Castiel stopped him. "No. no," he said with a heavy sigh and bright smile. "Leave it out. You wouldn't have done this if it hadn't meant something to you. Allow me to ask a single question. Why? Why did you organize our entire pantry on to the couch?"

"For you of course! Who else would this ever be for? Remember, this is the result of living, knowing, and being with me," his grin returned in an instant. His little brother had always been slightly concerned about his mental health when things like this happened.

Castiel exhaled deeply. "Remind me why I love you again?"

"I believe it had something to do with my charming personality. Now come on, let's eat and then we have to clean up this."

Settling down for the night, the two Novak brothers sat down on the floor, to eat their dinner off the couch. Both of them terrified of when it would be their last time to do one of these crazy things together. Neither wanted to think about that though.

That night in bed, Castiel rose the question. "So?" he said softly, hand tracing up Gabriel's bare chest. "How did it go?"

"Please Cassie... Let's not talk about it right now," the eldest brother begged quietly.

"We have to Gabriel. Any day now they might come to take you away. I- I want to know how much time I have left with you. How much time until the only one that I have ever needed is gone," Castiel whispered.

Gabriel fell silent. He wished he could make his little brother's pain go away. He had promised he would always be there for him and now... Now he was going to be taken away. Live human testing. Not a single person had survived it. Gabriel wouldn't either. The whole thing about this was that they took people who were completely healthy, never been in the hospital, not even for a sore throat and use them to test what happened with this new drug. It was biological warfare and everyone knew it. These people never lived and government selected them at random. When Gabriel and Castiel got the call to come in three months ago, both knew what the results would be.

And they were right. Castiel, thanks to an old bullet wound because of his job, wasn't wanted for testing. But Gabriel was. They had been warned that the next testing session, Gabriel would be in the group. Now, he had just had a follow up test today, to confirm that he was good for testing. Both knew that he would be in the group, the question that remained was when?

"They said that testing starts in about two weeks, but I have to be there three days early for final approval. So we have about 11 days left," he bowed his head in shame.

Castiel froze. "T- That little time huh? W- Wow..." he was struggling to breath. The idea of losing his brother, his boyfriend, was a terrible one.

"Cas. Breath. It's going to be okay. Nothing will change. You know I wish I didn't have to go," Gabriel said firmly, trying not to burst into tears himself.

Castiel shook his head and buried his face into Gabriel's chest. His brother was his life, his world, he couldn't lose that. His brother and he had started dating a while back. Their entire family had disowned them and most of their friends were disgusted by it. Gabriel and Castiel hadn't cared one bit, finding themselves a new place and new jobs. Of course, Gabriel had quit his job a week or two ago, but everything had been going well until that call.

"I love you Cassie, I really do. I hope you'll always love me and forgive me for leaving you," he soothed, running his hand through his brother's dark, soft hair. He was not taking this well, and Gabriel had never expected him too.

Gabriel's words only caused Castiel's tears to come harder and faster. "I love you too, I love you too..." he uttered, body racked by the sobs.

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/143513118@N05/44040051001/in/dateposted-public/)

More than likely that night, Castiel fell asleep in Gabriel's arms, tears still silently falling. All the while Gabriel held back his own tears, not wanting to burden his brother more than what had already happened. And eventually, once his little brother slept, he cried quietly for not only the fact that he was about to die, but because he was going to leave the most important person in his life alone.

The next morning, Castiel awoke to an empty bed and the smell of coffee. He gave a sniff and got up to go find his brother, still tired. He found the older man sitting at the table, vacant expression on his face as he stirred in copious amounts of honey.

"Gabriel... Pour in much more and you're going to have coffee flavored honey," he pointed out softly, alerting him that he was very much awake now.

Head and hand jerking up, Gabriel managed to spill honey all of the table and himself. "Shit," he answered Castiel. "I'm sorry..."

Castiel cocked his head curiously. "Why are you apologizing?" he asked as he moved to help clean up his brother.

Not moving for a moment, Gabriel looked like he was going to cry. He scooted his chair back and raced off to the bathroom. He striped and stepped in the shower, turning on the water. Castiel had followed him until the door was slammed and locked.

"Gabriel? Are you okay?" he urged him to speak, not getting any results thanks to the water being louder than him.

Sighing he headed back to scrub the honey off the table with hot water and soap. Castiel then dumped the cup of coffee out, rinsing it and making Gabriel another, this time with a much more reasonable amount of honey. He sat at the table patiently until a soaking wet Gabriel reappeared, eyes red and his clothes sticking to his body. He froze at the sight of Cas for a split second and then picked up a paper off of the counter, handing it to the taller brother.

Castiel frowned and took it. Reading over it, he looked back at Gabriel. "Wait... Gabe... Does this mean what I think it does?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," he answered weakly, "it does. T- Tomorrow... I am to leave tomorrow..."

"What! No! We, you said, no, you can't!" Castiel threw the paper down. "They said eleven days! Eleven days before I had to lose you forever! They can't take you early!"

Gabriel flinched at the yelling. He didn't answer his brother, but went and sat down next to him, grasping his hand. "I'm sorry Cas..." he whimpered.

Looking down at their intertwined hands, Castiel threw himself into Gabriel's arms. "It's not fair," he muttered. "It's not fair..."

"I know it isn't... I wish I didn't have to go Cassie, but I have no choice. Please don't forget about me," he held Cas closer than he ever had before.

"Forget you? You're crazy. I'll never forget you, never. How could I? You're my brother, the most important person in my life. I'll always remember you. I- I love you so much and I always will."

Gabriel placed a gentle hand on his face, tilting his head up some. "I know," was all he said and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. "I know and I thank you for it all."

Castiel's eyes remained downwards as he clung to his brother. "O- One day then... What do you want to do? Surely there's some strange, but awesome thing that you want to do."

"I'm with you Cassie. There's not much more I could wish for."

Castiel erupted into tears again. The fact that Gabriel didn't want anything more, didn't upset him. It was that Gabriel was content with him. The screw up brother who had caused his entire family and all his friends to push him away. Just because he loved him more than he should have. Gabriel rubbed Cas' back gently, trying to get him to breath.

When Gabriel finally calmed his little brother down, he gave him a gentle kiss. "Cassie... Baby... Please let me give you something to remember me by. One more time," he whispered in his ear.

Castiel whined softly, knowing exactly what Gabriel meant. "You don't have to. I'll never forget you."

"I know, but I want to. You know how much I enjoy pleasuring you. Please Cas... Just one more time."

Feeling the tears come back at the fact that this would be the last time he felt Gabriel's skin against his own, he nodded and clung to his brother tighter. He felt Gabriel's arms go around his body and pick him up with no effort at all, taking him to the bedroom. He didn't want it to end this way. Gabriel laid him on the bed, carefully undoing his shirt and pushing it off, whispering his normal sweet nothings in his ear. A sob racked Castiel's body, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Gabriel to stop. Gabriel kissed down his body, soothing some of his trembling nerves at the feel of the familiar and gentle lips. By the time that Gabriel was nosing into the soft pubic hairs that went barely above his jeans top, Castiel was crying out in need and fear.

His older brother's hands worked diligently to undo his jeans and slide them off. Castiel's legs trembled in anticipation as he cried his eyes open to stare at Gabriel. Gabriel leaned up to press another gentle kiss to his lips, trying calm his brother. "Don't worry sweetheart. I'm right here," he muttered.

Each word about tore Castiel apart. Words coming out, tinted in fear, he reached down to grasp Gabriel's hair. "Promise me you won't leave me alone?" he sobbed, tears hitting the pillow.

Meanwhile, Gabriel's own tears were coming quickly. "Oh Cas... Baby you know I can't," he answered.

"Please Gabriel... just promise me. Even if you can't keep it. Just for today, promise me..." Castiel's chest heaved heavily at his brother's refusal.

Heart shattering, Gabriel promised Castiel what he requested, trying to continue his task. But after that, just about everything seemed pointless. However, he knew that his brother deserved to feel as if nothing was wrong. He slowly pulled off Castiel's and his remaining clothes, reaching for the bottle of lube they kept hidden. Gabriel slowly started to stretch Castiel, knowing that if he was to accidentally hurt him, he'd never forgive himself.

Castiel shivered as Gabriel worked his fingers into him as carefully and skillfully as always. Just this alone was enough to make him hard and he cursed himself for letting his downstairs brain have any say in what was going on, but he tried his hardest to relax. The feeling of Gabriel acting as if this was Castiel's first time, did exactly what the older brother wanted. It reminded Cas of the first time that Gabriel had ever laid him down on this bed and had just done this exactly. That had been what officially kicked off their relationship and neither had ever desired sex from anyone else again, not that Castiel ever had.

"Sweetheart, I want you to keep your eyes closed for this okay. Just imagine that this wasn't goodbye and enjoy yourself," Gabriel whispered.

Cas whimpered, but gave a tiny nod, obeying Gabriel. He always did. Gabriel could've told him to jump off a cliff with him and Cas would. So he fought to keep him eyes closed and imagine that this wasn't goodbye, but hello. He felt Gabriel remove his fingers to pull off his own clothes. As his hole clenched around nothing, it wasn't long until his legs were being placed on his brother's shoulders.

Castiel nearly told Gabriel to stop. He knew that Gabriel would've, but it wasn't fair to ask that from him. His brother didn't mean any harm from this at all, he was just trying to comfort Cas. The slight burn as Gabriel pushed into him, didn't even register Castiel's busy mind. He didn't move right away as his hands roamed over Castiel's body.

"Relax sweetheart, just relax, I don't want to hurt you," Gabriel urged.

Forcing his muscles to relax, his body became lax in Gabriel's grip. His nerves were still high, but he could at least do this for Gabriel. Castiel allowed his head to fall back on the pillow, eyes still closed tightly. Once he was relaxed enough for Gabriel's liking, he began to move, causing Castiel to moan, rather unwillingly. Another small sob escaped and tried to hide his face.

Gabriel felt awful for his little brother. Cas' pain was because of him. How could he not feel guilty? "Hey, it's okay Cassie. If you need to cry, cry. No one is here to judge you."

This was the one thing that Castiel couldn't do as he shook his head. "No... No... Can't cry... Have to be... Strong..." the last word was barely audible.

"No Castiel, you don't have to be strong. You can be weak. The strongest people allow themselves to be weak. It's okay, I swear," his heart broke a little more for Castiel.

This reasoning did not seem to please Castiel at all at that moment. He continued to fight his tears as Gabriel continued with his own task. A little while later, Gabriel pulled out and wrapped Castiel in his arms. His little brother slowly drifted off to sleep while he watched him. The tears fell silently and Gabriel wiped them away diligently. They had less than 18 hours left together and until Gabriel was torn away, he was going to do his best to take care of Castiel like he had promised to do the day he was born.

Once they had both awaken from their short nap, they prepared dinner together. If this was to be their last meal together, they would make it worthwhile. Castiel worked hard to make all of Gabriel's favorite sugary foods, knowing it was the last time he would ever make them. He fought off all his tears and even managed a few laughs. They did dishes together which turned into a full out water war. Both brothers had so much fun, that they didn't realize that their time was flying by faster than normal. Who ever said that time flew when you were having fun, was sadly correct. The eighteen hours kept moving.

Finally, they settled down to watch Gabriel's favorite movie. As he watched Gabriel quote the movie word for word, Castiel made a mental word to never again watch this film. The movie came to an end and Castiel got up to turn off everything and then headed to bed with Gabriel. They snuggled into each other not saying anything more than, 'I love you.'

The next thing Castiel remembered was a doorbell ringing, he and Gabriel sprung up. Cas’ face held a look of pure terror. Gabriel's wasn't much better. Castiel stood up and coughed, very nervous.

"G- Get dressed... I'll, I'll answer the door," he whimpered and headed towards the bedroom door.

"Castiel wait," he said and paced up to him. He gave Cas a rough kiss, eyes rather sympathetic. "I love you."

Barely returning the kiss, he managed to echo the words back before darting for the door, trying not to cry. He opened the front door to see those awfully formal dressed men. "Come in," he uttered and stepped aside.

The four men stepped inside the door. "We're here for Gabriel Novak."

"I know," he whispered. "He's getting dressed and he'll be out in a moment. I'll go tell him."

Castiel retreated to the room, closing the door behind him. His bottom lip trembled and he took Gabriel's hand. He didn't want for him to go, even though he knew it was required. "Gabriel... They're here..."

Gabriel turned to catch Castiel's face in his hands. "I know... I'm sorry Cassie. I love you so much. Please always remember that," he begged softly.

Castiel nodded and gave Gabriel one last kiss. "I will. I promise," he whimpered again. "I love you."

Gabriel pulled away leaving his brother alone. He approached the men and no one said a word as they led him out to the black SUV that waited. Castiel watched them, bottom lip trembling. He was leaving. He was leaving... Castiel waited until the SUV was out of site before slowly closing the door and sitting down on the couch, finally collapsing into tears.

Castiel didn't move for hours. He had just had his heart torn from his chest and no one could fix it. Gabriel was as good as dead. Finally he stood up and started to collect everything that had ever been Gabriel's, putting it all in the spare bedroom. When he came across a photo of them together, he started to cry again. He wasn't sure how he had tears at all anymore. He wanted to die. That was all Gabriel was to get, why should he not be subject to the same fate?

That night, he slept on the couch. He was unable to lay in the bed that had held Gabriel for so long. Though he wasn't sure how much he slept. He laid staring at his phone all night, flipping through photos. There was so much Gabriel. Almost all of them had Gabriel in them. He whimpered again as he found an older video. Gabriel had been baking a cake that day for Cas' birthday, and he was pretty sure that more batter went into his brother's stomach than the pan. It had been the best cake and birthday ever. Pressing play, he watched, hearing nothing, but Gabriel's voice.

_ "You're a goof ball you know that?" _

_ "Yes, but I'm your goof ball!" _

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/143513118@N05/29103120347/in/dateposted-public/)

"My goof ball..." he said softly.

Had he told Gabriel that he loved him enough? Had he apologized for every argument they ever had? Had he forgiven him for every grudge he had ever held? Castiel want sure about anything anymore. He felt like he had before he had admitted to Gabriel that he liked him. Alone and desperate and pitiful. He hated it. Gabriel had taken every fear and doubt and pain away and now it was all back. He wasn't sure he could do it. Cas passed out on the couch that night, trying hard to accept the fact that Gabriel was gone.

And all the while he held onto two simple words. I Promise.


End file.
